This Day, February 28, In Jewish History by Mitchell A and Deb Levin Z"L
February 28
628: Persian
Shah Khosrau II who “conquered Jerusalem after a brief siege in 614 during the
Byzantine – Sasanian War” came passed away today.
1255: Bishop
Richard of Worms transferred to the chapter of the local cathedral, among other
revenues from the city, the sum of 40 pounds heller which the Jewish community
was obliged to pay annually on St. Martin's Day which falls on November 11.
1261: Henry
III, the Duke of Brabant and Margrave who provided the first evidence Jews
living in Antwerp when he “expressed his wish that the Jews of Brabant should
be expelled and destroyed because they were all considered ‘usurers’’ passed
away today.
1276(12th of
Adar): Bishop Pierre III Rostaing guaranteed protection to the Jews of
Carpentras, France in return for a tax of one-thirteenth of the total seat
rents of the synagogue
1348: At the
Cortes of Alcala de Hebares King Alfonso XI issued a "startling"
decree which forbad Jews and Moors from lending money “at interet.”
1488: Joshua
Solomon Soncino began printing copies of the Bible at Soncino, Italy.
1533:
Birthdate of French writer and philosopher Michael de Montaigne. His
mother, Antoinette de Louppes, came from a rich Spanish Jewish family, but was
herself raised as a Protestant. Should Montaigne be considered
Jewish? It depends upon whose list you look at, so I will leave it up to
others to investigate more fully and decide.
1574: The
first official Auto da Fe in the New World was held in Mexico after the
establishment of the Inquisition 5 years earlier. The first unofficial Auto da
Fe was actually held in 1528 when the conquistador Hernando Alonso was
executed.
1575(18th of
Adar II): Rabbi Elijah ben Moses de Vidas completed Reishit Hakhmah
1592: Clement
VIII issued Cum saepe accidere, a Papal Bull that forbade the Jews of
Avignon from selling new goods.
1593: Clement
VIII issued Cum Haebraeorum militia, a Papal Bull decreeing that the
Talmud should be burnt along with cabalistic works and commentaries, which gave
the owners of such works 10 days to turn them over to the Universal Inquisition
in Rome and subsequently two months to hand them over to local inquisitors.
1648:
The reign of Christian IV, the King of Denmark and Norway who lifted the
restrictions that had been placed on Sephardic Jews when he took control of the
town of Altona came to an end today.
1648: Frederick III, who said
of the Jews, they “have stolen into Denmark contrary to long-standing custom,
[since the days of the Reformation, the Lutheran creed had, according to the
laws of Denmark, been compulsory throughout the kingdom], and have dared to
traffic with jewels and the like” which led him “to order that no Jew should
enter Denmark without a special passport ("Geleitsbrief"), and that
those who were already in the country should be heavily fined if they did not
leave within fourteen days” began his reign today. [Editors’ note: A few years
later, however, the tables were turned. Frederick III., being in need of funds
for his wars, borrowed money from the Jew Abraham (or Diego) Teixeira de Mattos
of Hamburg (known through his relations with the Swedish queen Christina), and
gave as security crownlands in Jutland. Teixeira thereupon made such good use
of his influence with the Danish king that, as early as Jan. 19, 1657,
"the Portuguese professing the Hebrew religion" were permitted to
travel everywhere within the kingdom, and to trade and traffic within the limit
of the law. Teixeira himself gained little by his transaction with the Danish
monarch. As his loan was not returned, he took instead the estates he held as
security, selling them later at a great loss. The king acted similarly in his
dealings with the De Lima family, who were in possession of the Hald estate
from 1660 to 1703.”]
1659:
Birthdate of Father Jean Morin, a French biblical scholar who was the first to
edit the “Samaritan Pentateuch and Targum.
1660(16th
of Adar I, 5420): Jacob Katzenellenbogen the son and successor of Abraham
(Joseph Jacob) Katzenellenbogen of Lemberg who served as President of the bet
din and head of the yeshibah of Lemberg passed away today.
1675: An
agreement was ratified today that would allow 250 Jewish families to return
Vienna and occupy 50 places of business. In return for this privilege,
the Jews agreed to make a payment of 300,000 florins and the payment of an
annual tax of 10,000 florins. The government agreed to the return of the
Jews because the treasury was empty.
1677: In
Newport, RI, Jewish community purchased land to be used as a cemetery
1715: Judah
Monis “was admitted a freeman by the Mayor and Common Council of New York City
today.
1720: Judah
Monis, an Algerian born Jew who would become the first American author of a
Hebrew grammar book arrived in New York.
1747: Benedict
XIV issued Postremomens, a Papal Bull that deals with the baptism of
Jews.
1762: Dutch
born Hyam Mers and Rachel Louzada who were married in New York in 1751, gave
birth to Belle Myers, the wife of Samuel Asher Levy.
1767(29th
of Adar I, 5527): Parashat Pekudei; Shabbat Shekalim
1771(14th
of Adar, 5531): Purim
1781:
Birthdate of German native Isaac Jacob Bamberger, the husband of Babette Treu,
Bella Jacobs and Gela Weil and father of Bertha, Henry, Ansel, Rosa and Clara
Bamberger.
1784: Moses
Cohen de Larah arrived in Savannah after which he lived in Charleston and
Philadelphia.
1784: Ralph de
Pass, a “vendue master” (auctioneer) arrived in Savannah today from Jamaica
before moving on to Charleston, SC where he passed away in 1812.
1784: Jacob de
Pass, the son of Ralph de Pass arrived in Savannah today from Jamaica the place
to which he would return in 1788.
1784: Esther
de Pass, the future wife of Samuel da Costa, arrived in Savannah today.
1784: One day
after he had passed away, Nathan ben Hayyim, was buried today, erev Shabbat, at
the “Alderney Road (Globe Rd) Jewish Cemetery.”
1787: The
state legislature of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania granted Hugh Henry
Breckenridge a charter for a school that is now known as the University of
Pittsburgh. Today, there are approximately 1,800 Jewish students among the
total undergrad population of 16,000 and 500 Jewish students among the 7,000
graduate students. The university offers a major in Jewish studies.
Jewish students can avail themselves of programs offered by Hillel and Chabad
as well as find kosher meals at the “Kosher Korner” at the University Center.
1799:
Birthdate of Father Johann Joseph Ignaz von Döllinger author of “The Jews In
Europe.”
http://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Popular_Science_Monthly/Volume_21/June_1882/The_Jews_in_Europe_I
1799:
Napoleon, the first European leader to meet with Jewish leaders in Palestine,
led his army out of Gaza and headed for Ramallah.
1799: In
Georgetown, SC, Belle Moses and Solomon Cohen who were married her hometown of
Charleston in 1786 gave birth to Sarah Henrietta Cohen, the wife of Mordecai
Myers and then Robert Phillips.
1805(29th
of Adar I, 5565): Naphtali Hirz Wessely, the Jewish man of letters born at
Hamburg in 1725 and educated at Copenhagen passed away today in his native
city.
http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/judaica/ejud_0002_0021_0_20854.html
1806:
Birthdate of Bohemia native Siegfried Becher, the University of Prague and
University of Vienna educated economist who taught at the Polytechnic Institute
in Vienna and was employed in the ministry of commerce from 1848 to 1851.
https://www.jewishencyclopedia.com/articles/2704-becher-siegfried
1808:
Birthdate of Frances “Fanny” Francks Hirschberg, the wife of Henry M.
Hirschberg and the mother of Georgiana, Michael and Isabella Hirschberg.
1811(4th of
Adar, 5571): Eighty-six-year-old Jakob Faibel, the husband of Ewa Duschenes
passed away in Prague.
1812(15th
of Adar, 5572): Shushan Puri
1812:
Birthdate of Moses (Moyses) Baruch, Auerbach who gained fame as German-Jewish
author Berthold Auerbach who published a novel entitled Spinoza: Ein
Historischer Roman in 1837 and who passed away in 1882 at the age of 70.
1814: Two days
after she had passed away, Bilhah Gompertz, the son of Barnet Gompertz and
Rachel Benjamin Isaac was buried today at the “Hoxton Old Burial Ground.”
1818:
Birthdate of Amsterdam native and future resident of Viriginia Catherine de
Castro, the wife of Jacob Ezekiel and mother of auctioneer Henry Clay Ezekiel
1819(3rd
of Adar, 5579): Jochebed Levy, the daughter of Simeon Levy passed away. (She is
not to be confused with other contemporaries with the same name.)
1820(13th
of Adar, 5580): Ta’anit Esther; Erev Purim observed as the United States debate
the legislation that will be known as the Missouri Compromise.
1823:
Birthdate of Ernest Renan a French author who specialized in studies of the
ancient languages and civilizations of the Middle East. Late in life, Renan
wrote a three volume “History of Israel.” The first volume appeared in
1887 and the final volume appeared in 1897. Some claimed that he was an
anti-Semite (anti-Jewish) because of comments about the limitations of the
Semitic mind. But Renan contended that the Jewish people were not a race
in the biological and he was an opponent of the nationalism that took hold in
Germany in the latter of the 19th century because of its
anti-Semitic component.
1824(29th
of Adar I, 5584): Parashat Vayakhel; Shabbat Shekalim observed on the same day
that Robert E. Lee wrote to Secretary of War John C. Calhoun describing his
qualification for entering the U.S. Military Academy at West Point.
1826:
Birthdate of Prague native and Czech trained physician William Tausig who
immigrated to New York in 1847 and moved on to St. Louis a year later where he
was elected Mayor in 1852 in which would mark the start of decades of public
service that included serving as St. Louis County Judge, the raising of two
regiments during the Civil War to turn back Rebel raiders and the construction
of the first road and railroad bridge across the Mississippi River
1827(1st of
Adar): Rabbi Menahem Mendel of Shklov passed away
1828(13th
of Adar, 5588): Ta’anit Esther; Erev Purim as General Andrew Jackson campaigns
against John Q. Adams, the only President who was elected by House of
Representatives after a deadlock in the Electoral College.
1829(25th of
Adar, 5589): Wolf Breidenbach passed away
1831: In
Philadelphia, John A. Forepaugh and Susannah Heimer gave birth to Adam John
Forepaugh, the circus owner who included Leopold S. Kahn, “the dwarf performer”
known as Admiral Dot among his acts in the 1890’s
1832:
Birthdate of Moritz Wahrmann, the native of Budapest and the grandson of Israel
Wahrman and brother of Alexander Wahrmann who was a leader of the Jewish
community, a member of the Hungarian Parliament and President of the Chamber of
Commerce and Industry of Budapest.
1837: In
Bavaria, Jakob Neumond and his wife gave birth to Isidore Newman the husband of
Rebecca Kiefer and “head of the banking firm of Isidore Newman and Sons, the
“owner of street railway systems” in several cities and the President of the
New Orleans Stock Exchange whose philanthropies included chairing the Board of
Trustees of the Endowment Fund for the Jewish Widows’ and Orphans’ Home,
chairing the Endowment Fund of the Touro Infirmary Board, Commissioner of
Audubon Park and the founding of the Isidore Newman Manuel Training School.
1838:
Birthdate of French engineer Maurice Levy.
1838: In New
York City, Myer David Cohen and Judith Simha Solis gave birth to Jacob Da Silva
Solis Cohen, the husband of Miriam Binswanger with whom he had eleven children
who graduated from the University of Pennsylvania and Jefferson Medical College
and who served with both the U.S. Army and Navy during the Civil War before
pursuing a career as a leading laryngologist in Philadelphia.
https://archives.cjh.org//repositories/3/resources/356
1842: B'nai
Yeshurun, a congregation organized by the German Jews living in Cincinnati,
Ohio was incorporated under the laws of the state of Ohio.
1842: In
Cleveland, Ohio, Anshe Chesed (now Anshe Chesed - Fairmount Temple) which had
been founded as a German Orthodox congregation in 1841 was chartered
today. The congregation had 30 members and Asher Lehman served as the
Rabbi.
1843: In
Bishop-Purnitz, Austria, Mina and Benedict Greenhut gave birth to Joseph B.
Greenhut, a decorated Civil War veteran and a successful Chicago, Illinois,
businessman.
1845: Sarah
Moses and Alexander Jones gave birth to Lewis Jones.
1847: In
Canterbury, Kent, Hannah Baranard and Nathan Jones gave birth to their daughter
Ellah Jacobs.
1849: London
born Amelia Joel and Solomon Marks gave birth to Mary Marks.
1850: The
General Assembly of the provisional State of Deseret established the University
Desert which was the forerunner of the University of Utah located at Salt Lake
City, Utah. Today the university has approximately 350 Jewish students out of a
student population of 15,000. The school has ten courses in Jewish
studies and offers a major degree in Jewish Studies. Not bad for a school
founded deep the heart of the land of Brigham Young.
1851(26th
of Adar I, 5611): Eighty-one-year-old Annie Ezekiel, the England born daughter
of Sarah and Abraham Ezekiel, the husband of Exeter, England, Benjamin Jonas
with whom she had nine children passed away today in Cincinnati, OH.
1853: One day
after he had passed away, Jacob Aaron, a London hosier and haberdasher, the son
of “Leib Milkman Aaaron”, husaband of the former Catherine Benjamin with whom
he had had six children was buried today at the Brady Street Jewish Cemetery.
1854: The
Republican Party of the United States is organized in Ripon, Wisconsin. The
party was formed in the wake of the Kansas-Nebraska act and was designed to
stop the Democrats’ pro-slavery agenda. Some of the Jews who were active
in the early days of the party were Sabato Morais, rabbi of the Mikveh Israel
Congregation, Moritz Pinner who edited a German language abolitionist paper in
Kansas ,
Kentuckian Lewis Naphtali Dembitz, uncle of the Louis Brandeis and New Yorker
Sigsmund Kaufman who was an a member of the electoral college that chose
Abraham Lincoln to serve as President in 1860.
1855: In a
demonstration of the extent to which Jewish concepts have penetrated the
general cultural milieu, while giving a speech in New York on the habits of
North American Indians, General Sam Houston tells the audience that until “the
spirit of revenge had been conquered by civilization” the law of the Cherokee
Nation “was the same as that practiced under the old dispensation by the Jews
of an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth and blood for blood.”
1858(14th
of Adar, 5618): Purim
1858(14th
of Adar, 5618): Joseph Reuben Romm, the third generation of printers of Hebrew
books, who moved the family business from Grodno to Vilna, passed away today.
1858: At
Frankfurt Am Main, Selig Meier Goldschmidt and Clementine Goldschmidt gave
birth Helene Goldschmidt, the future wife of Leon Yehudah Tedesco making her
Helen Tedesco.
1860: “In
Nieder-Rehbach, Austria-Hungary (today in Romania),” Julia and Ignatz Bker gave
birth to Milwaukee, WI socialist journalist Victor L. Berger, the husband of
fellow socialist Meta Schlichting and the first member of the Socialist Party
to hold a seat in the U.S. House of Representative.
https://history.house.gov/People/Detail/9304
1861:
Birthdate of Kuppenheim, Germany native and San Francisco trained lawyer Julius
Kahn, the U.S Congressman who was a strong advocate for national defense
before, during and after WW I and the author of legislation designed to exclude
Chinese immigrants while enjoying the unique distinction of having his wife
Florence Prag Kahn succeed him in the House after he passed away.
https://history.house.gov/People/Listing/K/KAHN,-Julius-(K000003)/
1862: “Affairs
In Utah” published today described the drive of those living in that territory
to become a state in the Union. “As things go, it does seem apparent that Jews
and Gentiles here are, more or less, under the conviction that the particular
time ‘in the course of human events’ is at hand when a change is inevitable in
the fashion of Government among "this people." Some may be surprised
to hear of Jews connected with Utah which is almost synonymous with the Mormon
Religion. The first Jews who settled in Utah were probably “dropouts” from the
wagon trains heading to California during the California Gold Rush. By 1853,
two Jews had established a millenary store in Salt Lake City. The first
non-Mormon governor of Utah would be a Jew named Simon Bamberger. As to
the issue of statehood, it would be another 34 years before that goal was
reached. The price of admission would be a formal rejection by the
Mormons of the practice of polygamy. To date, this is the only time that
the federal government has “interfered” with the doctrines of a religious
organization.
1862(28th
of Adar I, 5622): Meyer Schoenfeld, who is buried in the New Mount Sinai
Cemetery & Mausoleum in St. Louis County, passed away today.
1863: The will
of the late Commodore Uriah P. Levy, U.S. Navy, which has been admitted to
probate, is now before the Supreme Court, at Special Term. Proceedings have
been “instituted to break it, in respect to its bequests to the people of the
United States, or the State of Virginia, and then to certain Hebrew
congregations in New-York, Philadelphia and Richmond, for the purpose of
founding an agricultural school at Monticello, in the State of Virginia.”
1864: During
the Civil War, according to General Order No. 9 issued today at the Headquarters
of the 3rd Brigade, 3rd Division, 11th Corps
stationed at Whiteside, TN which is to be read “on dress parade to the troops today”
that in parting with Captain Joseph B. Greenhut of the 82nd Regiment
Illinois Volunteers who has resigned his resignation after having “served three
years, taking active part in all the most decisive battles in the East and West”
“the Colonel commanding feels it both a duty and a pleasure to bear testimony
to his diligence, zeal and fidelity in the performance of his duty in the
office as well as in the field and he regrets to see so excellent and brave an
officer as Captain Greenhut leave his command.
1865: In
Geneva, Kate, née Levison and Michel Bergson gave birth to Mina Begson, the
sister of Henri Bergson who gained fame as “artist and occultist” Moina
Mathers.
1866(13th
of Adar, 5626): Ta’anit Esther; Erev Purim on the last day of “a month that
concludes with having a full moon.”
1868(5th of
Adar, 5626): Rabbi Israel Muschkat, author of Harei Besamim, passed away.
1869: In New York City, Louis and Sarah
(Greenbaum) Sloss gave birth to Harvard trained attorney Marcus C. Sloss, the
husband of Hattie Hecht whom he married in 1899 and who practiced law in
California where he served as an associate California State Supreme Court
Justice and was a member of the American Jewish Committee.
1869: In
Austria-Hungary, Philip and Marie (Goldfinger) Greenbaum gave birth to
Philadelphia Dental College graduate, Max Greenbaum, D.D.S, the husband of
Blanche Goldsmith and author of “The Practice of Dentistry” who was a member of
Keneseth Israel.
1874:
Birthdate of Brooklyn native Benjamin Britton
Gottsberger, the husband of Helen Majorie Beadle Gottsberger whom he married in
1898.
1875:
Birthdate of Kiev native Morris Garfunkel, the resident of New York and
President of the Garfunkel Conditioning Corporation.
1875:
Birthdate of Riga native Adolph Abbey, the student of Rabbi Isaac Eichanan
Spector and University of Oregon trained attorney who led congregations in
Washington, D.C. and Spokane, WA before becoming the rabbi at the Hall Street
Synagogue in Portland, OR.
1877(15th
of Adar, 5637): Shushan Purim observed for the last time during the Presidency
of U.S. Grant who had attended dedicatory services at Adas Israel in
Washington, D.C.
1878:
Birthdate of Warsaw native Zdzisław Birnbaum, the Polish violinist and
conductor who served two terms as Music Director of the Warsaw Philharmonic
Orchestra.
1878: In
response to “the proliferation of door-to-door begging in the city by destitute
Jews,” “a meeting was held in Leeds to establish a Board of Guardians to
provide a system of relief to those in need.”
1879: One day
after he had passed away, Isaac Horwitz, the son of “Abraham Horwitz” and “Lena
Altman” was buried today in the “Brompton (Fulham Road) Jewish Cemetery.”
1880: In New
York City, Samuel Steinbrink, who operated a small candy store on the east side
and Fredricka (Stein) Steinbrink gave birth to NYU trained attorney and
Republican party member Meier Steinbrink, the husband of Sadie Bloch and father
of Stuart Steinbrink and Miriam Abelow who became a New Your State Supreme
Court Justice and President of Congregation Beth Elohim in Brooklyn as well as
a “director and incorporator of the Brooklyn Federation of Jewish Charites.”
1880: In
Lithuania, Lazarus and Miriam (Burros) Abramowitz gave birth to Herman
Rabinowitz, who in 1890 came to the United States where he graduated from CCNY,
Columbia and the Jewish Theological Seminary before moving to Canada in 1903
where he served as Rabbi of Montreal’s Shaar Hashomayim Congregation and the
Senior Jewish Chaplain in the Canadian Army during WW I while also founding the
Canadian Jewish Congress and raising two children with “his wife, the former
Theresa Bockar.
https://www.cjhn.ca/en/permalink/cjhn31777
https://www.encyclopedia.com/religion/encyclopedias-almanacs-transcripts-and-maps/abramowitz-herman
1882 In
Hungary, Judah and Marjem Grunwald gave birth William Vilmus Grunwald, the
borther of Samuel, Hani, Emanuel and Ida Ethel Grunwald.
1882(9th
of Adar, 5642): Eighty-four-year-old Almeria Levy, the daughter of Jacob and
Hannah de Leon and wife of Hayman Levy passed away today in Philadelphia.
1882: It was
reported today that the Russian government offered an explanation to the
British government for the expulsion of Mr. Lewisohn from the Czar’s
empire. While the British saw Lewisohn as an English citizen, the
Russians saw him as being a Jew. And in Russia, Jews, regardless of the
country in which they live, are considered to be Jews which make them a thing
without legal standing.
1882: John w.
Foster will deliver a lecture on “The Czar and His People” a tonight’s meeting
of the Young Men’s Hebrew Association at Chickering Hall in New York City.
1883: Twenty-four-year-old
Yale alum and Columbia trained attorney Adolph S. Ochs, the future owner and
President of The New York Times married Effie M. Wise today in
Cincinnati, OH.
1883: In the
U.K. British Zionist and barrister Herbert Bentwich and Susannah Bentwich gave
birth to Norman De Mattos Bentwich who “was the British-appointed
attorney-general of Mandatory Palestine.
1885(13th
of Adar, 5645): Shabbat Zachor; erev Purim celebrated for the last time during
the Presidency of Benjamin Harrison.
1885: In
Dayton, OH, Mollie Witkowsky and Moses Kusworm gave birth to Cincinnati Law
School trained attorney Sidney Grover Kusworm, the husband of Helen Frances
Block and Republican politician who was the president of the Jewish Federated
Charities of Dayton and a member of B’nai B’rith.
1886(23rd
of Adar I, 5646): Pawnbroker Aaron Simon, a native of Prussia, passed away
today after which he was buried at the Wolverhampton Old Jewish Burial Ground.
1887: Rumania
excluded Jews from public service and the tobacco trade.
1887:
Birthdate of Zorach Gorfinkel who gained fame William Zorach, “a
Lithuanian-American sculptor, painter, printmaker, and writer” who won the
Logan Medal of the arts and who was “the husband of Marguerite Thompson Zorach
and father of Dahlov Ipcar.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Zorach#mediaviewer/File:William_Zorach,_Moses,_1952.JPG
1888: In
Baltimore, MD, Charles and Rebecca Erlanger gave birth to Johns Hopkins
lacrosse player and textile executive Milton S. Erlanger, the husband of Alene
Stern Erlanger “who was responsible for the formation of the Canine Corps
during WW II and with whom he had a son and two daughters.
1889(27th of
Adar I, 5649): In Edinburgh, Marcus Levy, a picture frame maker and Minna Levy,
a draper, gave birth to Hyman Levy.
http://www-history.mcs.st-and.ac.uk/Biographies/Levy_Hyman.html
http://www-history.mcs.st-and.ac.uk/Obits/Levy_Hyman.html
1890: Lena
Catosk Pearlstone, the Mississippi born daughter of Mina and Louis Hart and her
husband Barney Pearlstone gave birth to Morris Pearlstone
1891:
Birthdate of Yaakov Kamenetsky, the Lithuanian born Rosh Yeshiva and Talmudist,
who moved to North America in 1937 where he served as a Rabbi in several U.S.
and Canadian cities.
1892: In
Buffalo, NY Nathan and Esther (Freedman) Aaron gave birth to University of
Buffalo trained attorney A. Howard Aaron, a member of Temple Beth Zion and
supporter of the Jewish Federation for Social Service who was the husband of
Arline Schwartz.
1893: Decrees
ordering the expulsion of the Jews from Poland today which were even more
far-reaching than those that had been issued expelling Jews from their homes in
Russia.
1894: In New
York City, Joseph Seligman and Babette Seligman gave birth to Walter Joseph
Seligman
1894: In New
York City, Joseph and Sarah Swernofsky Hecht gave birth to Racine, Wisconsin
resident and American playwright Ben Hecht, the two-time Oscar winner whose most
famous work was “The Front Page” which he co-authored with Charles MacArthur
but whose real claim to fame for some was his ardent support for the Zionist
cause.
https://www.britannica.com/biography/Ben-Hecht
https://www.amazon.com/Ben-Hecht-Fighting-Moving-Pictures/dp/030018042X
1895: It was
reported today that the officers of the Young Ladies’ and Gentlemen’s League of
the Montefiore Home are: Lucien Bonheur, President; Miss Gertrude Hess, Vice
President; James Loeb, Treasurer; Amelia Simon, Secretary.
1895: “Great
Hebrew Charity” published today included Jacob Schiff’s acknowledgement of the
receipt $10,063.19 for the Montefiore Home that was raised by the recent
charity ball as well as an additional $2,000 that came from payment of dues.
1895: “German
Hebrew Immigration” published today described the debate in the Reichstag on
restricting the immigration of Jews from Russia and Austria which one deputy
described as being “so great as to amount to a national plague.” Deputies from
the Social Democrats and National Liberty Party voiced their opposition to any
restrictive measures which led to an end to the debate.
1895:
Birthdate of New York City native and Johns Hopkins trained obstetrician and
gynecologist Jacob Pearl Greenhill, the author Office Gynecology.
1896(14th
of Adar, 5656): Purim
1896: Two days
after she had passed away, Sarah (Levy) Moses, the wife of Moses Moses, was
buried today at the “Balls Pond Road Jewish Cemetery.”
1897: One day
after she had passed away, 71-year-old Henrietta Cohen, the wife of Marcus
Cohen, was buried today at the “Plashet Jewish Cemetery” in London.
1897(26th
of Adar I, 5657): Fifty-eight-year-old the Cracow born Austrian physician
Blumenstock von Halban who was raised to nobility in 1891 in recognition of his
service as chairman of the forensic medicine department passed away today.
1898: In New
York City, Polish Jewish immigrants “Clara (née Ostrow), a wardrobe mistress,
and Louis Opiekun, a shirtmaker” gave birth Malka Opiekun who gained fame as
actress Molly Picon.
http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/molly-picon
http://www.notablebiographies.com/supp/Supplement-Mi-So/Picon-Molly.html
1898: Two days
after he had passed away 63-year-old Nathaniel Nathan was buried today at the
“Plashet Jewish Cemetery” in London.
1898: In
Lisrobin, Kiskeam, County Cork James and Margaret O’Flaherty gave birth to Hugh
O’Flaherty, the priest and Roman Curia official who risked his life to save
Allied P.O.W.’s and Italian Jews
http://www.timesofisrael.com/the-unbelievable-heroic-story-of-irelands-overlooked-oscar-schindler/
1898(6th
of Adar, 5658): Eighty-two-year-old Joseph Baron von Morpurgo passed away today
at Trieste.
1898: “The
Get-Together Clubs” of New York and Brooklyn met this evening where the general
discussion of “The Problem of the Unemployed” including a presentation by N.S.
Rosenau, the Director of the United Hebrew Charities.
1898:
Birthdate of Brooklyn native and WW I veteran Jacob Ark, the George Washington
University graduate and Georgetown trained attorney who began serving as New
York State Supreme Court Judge in 1961.
1899: In Ukraine,
Victor (Avigdor) Kramer and his wife Rochel gave birth to future Boston resident
Rose Snyder, the wife of Henry Snyder with whom she had two children—Elaine and
Marvin.
1899: It was
reported today that Oscar S. Straus was member of the Executive Committee of
the Civil Service Reform Association of the City New York which will become the
official agency of New York designed to promote a system based on the notion
that “a public office is public trust.”
1900: During
the Second Boer War the 118-day siege of Ladysmith came to an end. Major Karri
Davies was one of the Jewish soldiers who fought in defense of the British
position at Ladysmith. There were at least 2,800 Jews fighting for the British
and an untold number fighting for the Boers.
1900: Attorney
and University of Cincinnati graduate Isadore Rosenthal, the HUC trained rabbi
and Long Island born son of Ernestine Witkowski and Bernard Rosenthal who
served congregations in Lancaster, PA and McKeesport, PA married Florence
Rosenstein today.
1901:
Birthdate of Vilem Bribram, a member of the Czech Army who was buried in the
East Ham Jewish Cemetery in 1944.
1902(21st
of Adar I, 5662): Fifty-two-year-old Gratz Mordecai, the Washington, D.C. born
son Sarah Ann Hays and West Point graduate Alfred Mordecai, the youngest
brother of Civil War hero Alfred Mordecai and the husband of Frances Kingsland
Gifford whom he married in 1900 and who was the author of A Report on the
Terminal Facilities for Handling Freight of the Railroads Entering the Port of
New York passed away today in Swarthmore, PA.
1902: Two days
after she had passed away, Elizabeth Michaels was buried today at the “Balls
Pond Road Jewish Cemetery.”
1903: Max
Nordau meets Leopold Greenberg in Paris and sends a wire to Herzl:
"Greenberg had obtained everything that can possibly be conceded in an
official agreement."
1904: The
first entry was made on the marriage register of the Artillery Lane Synagogue.
1905: In New
York, the initial meeting of a “Choral Society for Ancient Hebrew Melodies” was
held at the rooms Young Men’s Hebrew Association under the direction of Mr.
Rosenblatt.
1906: Twenty-two-year-old
Sarah Manilla, Paris France born daughter of Benjamin and Miriam Manilla became
Sarah Lewis today when she married Max J. Lewis in Cleveland, OH where she
served as the President of the Cleveland Chapter of Hadasah
1906:
In the Williamsburg section of Brooklyn Jennie (Riechenthal) and Max Siegel
gave birth to Benjamin Siegel who gained fame as mobster Ben “Bugsy” Siegel
considered by some to be “the father of Las Vegas.”
https://www.biography.com/people/bugsy-siegel-9542063
1907(14th
of Adar, 5667): Purim
1907(14th
of Adar, 5667): Ninety-two-year-old Canadian “businessman and financier” Jacob
Henry Joseph passed away today in Montreal.
https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/biology-physics-cooper-westinghouse/
1907: In
Hillsboro, OH, John and Elizabeth Caniff gave birth to cartoonist Milton Arthur
Paul Caniff the creator of “Steve Canyon” and “Terry and the Pirates.”
1907(14th
of Adar, 5667): Eighty-year-old Wilhelm Rapp passed away. Born in Germany
in 1827, he moved to the United States in 1852 after having participated in the
failed Revolutions of 1848. Rapp edited newspapers in several cities before the
Civil War. An outspoken abolitionist and Unionist he was forced to flee
from Baltimore to Washington, DC in 1861. Rapp turned down President Lincoln’s
offer to make him postmaster general and moved to Chicago, Illinois where
worked as a newspaper editor until his death.
1908: In
Milwaukee, WI, Henry and Anna Gattman gave birth to Marie Louise Gattman the
“ex-wife of Hyman Hirsh.”
1908(26th of Adar I, 5668): Sixty-four-year-old
Hungarian native of Rabbi Sigmund Drechsler who was hired “at the salary of
$1,000 per year” to serve as the spiritual leader of Congregation B’nai
Jeshurun when it moved into its new building in Cleveland, OH” passed away today.
1909: In
Kensington (UK) Edward Harold Spender and Violet Hilda Schuster who was
consider “half Jewish” because her father’s family had been German Jews before
converting gave birth to Poet Laureate Sir Stephen Spender whose identification
with the Jewish people was strengthened by the fact that his second wife was
English Pianist and author Natasha Spender.
1910: “Leon
Kamarky and Jacob Faphirstein of New York told President Taft today that for a
number of years the Jews of” the United States “had been endeavoring to secure
action that would give American citizens freedom from political arrest in
Russia” and “President Taft said he was deeply interested in the matter and had
instructed Mr. Rockhill,” the American Ambassador to St. Petersburg “to make
strong representations to the Russian Government looking to the inviolability
of America of American passports” in Russia.”
1911: Akron,
Ohio businessman Bert A. Polsky and the former Hazel Steiner gave birth to
their daughter Peggy who was the wife of H.C. Dodge.
1911:
Birthdate of Judah Leon Bernstein who gained fame as photographer Lou
Bernstein.
https://www.icp.org/browse/archive/constituents/lou-bernstein?all/all/all/all/0
1912(10th
of Adar, 5672): On the Jewish calendar, yahrzeit of Rabbi Joseph Chajes of
Lamberg who passed away in 5445 on the Jewish calendar.
1912:
Birthdate of Isabella Harris, the native of Bethnal Green, London the wife of
Harry Weinberg, the son of Betsy Cohen and Emanuel Weinberg.
1913(21st
of Adar I, 5673): Fifty-seven-year-old Phil Phillips passed away in Cardiff,
Wales.
1913: Seventy-seven-year-old,
the president of William Sicher Dry Goods Company who had come to St. Louis in
1852 and was a member of Share Emeth Hebrew Congregation is scheduled to be
buried at Mt. Cemetery following a funeral service to be conducted at his home.
1914(2nd
of Adar, 5674): Parashat Terumah
1914: “Mr. and
Mrs. Jacob H. Schiff sailed today on the United Fruit steamer Calamares for a three-week
cruise to the West Indies including a visit to the Panama Canal.”
1915(14th
of Adar, 5675): Purim
1915: “One
thousand members of the Young Men’s Hebrew Association attended” services at
Temple Beth-El in New York this “morning to celebrate the festival of Purim.”
1915: Tonight
“The Spanish-Portuguese Jewish Congregation, the oldest in the United States”
presented “a series of tableaux representing the influence of Jews on the early
history of America.”
1915: The
Church Peace Union founded by Andrew Carnegie whose trustees are 29 prominent
clergymen including those from Jewish organizations made public an address
cautioning the clergy “against partisanship in discussing the European War and
protesting against the agitation for increased armaments.”
1915: In
Brooklyn, NY, Israel Mostel and Cina "Celia" Druchs gave birth Samuel
Joel "Zero" Mostel an actor known for his roles in the original
version of “The Producers” and “Fiddler on the Roof.”
https://spartacus-educational.com/USAmostel.htm
http://www.tcm.com/this-month/article/179731%7C179732/Zero-Mostel-Profile.html
1915: “Aid For
Polish Jews” published today described efforts that have been organized in the
United States and Petrograd to provide aide for the approximately 500,000 Jews
of Galicia who have been “ruined” by the war.
1915: It was
reported today that “the large number of Jewish refugees arriving in Moscow
from various parts of” war torn Poland are given “a sympathetic reception”
while “the situation is quite different for Jewish refugees…who arrive in
Petrograd” who now “are all being sent back to the pale of settlement.”
1916(24th of
Adar I, 5676): Morris Lasker, aged 76, millionaire miller, pioneer, Indian
fighter and philanthropist died in Galveston, Texas, this afternoon. Mr.
Lasker won wide fame when he led the Jews of the South in a fight for the life
and vindication of Leo Frank, who was convicted in Atlanta for the murder of
Mary Phagan. Mr. Lasker came to America from Germany at the age of
16. He “was in the mercantile business in George for three years, and
then came to Texas, settling at Weatherford, where he engaged in many
expeditions against the Indians.” He settled in Galveston in 1867 and
married Miss Nettie Davis of Albany, NY, the widow who survives him, along with
six children including Albert Lasker of Chicago.
1916: The
Board of Trustees of Congregation Orachim held a special meeting today where
they adopted resolutions expressing their sorrow at the death of Henry Glass,
the President of Henry Glass and Company.
1916: On the
same day that it was reported that the Czar has granted freedom of travel to
Jews from the United States, Judge Leon Sanders said that as a result of the
work of New York lawyer Isidore Hershfield “sums of money are now being sent to
Russia by Jewish immigrants in” in the United States “which will far surpass
the amounts thus far collected for relief purposes.
1916: Henry
James, one of the literary giants of the 19th century, passed
away. For more about how James viewed Jews including his review of George
Eliot's Daniel Deronda see Milton Kerker’s Henry James on the Jewish
scene/
1917: “The 5,000 members of the Federation of
Hebrew Grocers’ Association have been advised by their executive committee”
“which met last night” “to close the 8,000 retail grocery stores which they
operate unless the housewives, now boy boycotting certain foodstuffs, are force
to change their tactics.”
1917: Two days after she had passed away today,
58 year old Kate Samuel, the “wife of Ralph Samuel” was buried today at the
“Plashet Jewish Cemetery” in London.
1917: Today, fearing a violent revolution, “the
High Command of the Russian tried to convince Czar Nicholas II to abdicate in
favor Grand Duke Michael Alexandrovich, his younger brother.
1917: Two days after he had passed, 46 year old
Morris Hymovitch was buried today at the “Plashet Jewish Cemetery” in London.
1918: “The 150 recruits for the Jewish units in
the British Army who have enlisted” in the United States “were mustered into
the service at the British and Canadian Recruiting Mission” in New York City
“and led by mounted policemen, a band and British and Canadian officers down
Fifth Avenue to the Fall River line pier from which point they embarked on
their way to way
1919: Birthdate of Leo Cantor who “played
halfback at the University of California-Los Angeles from 1938-1941. He then
played defensive back, halfback, and fullback in the NFL with the New York
Giants in 1942 and for the Chicago Cardinals in 1945.”
http://scjewishsportshof.com/cantor.html
http://www.nfl.com/player/leocantor/2511023/profile
1919: Following the decision to combine two
Yiddish newspapers whose readers were “the younger and more progressive
Orthodox Jews, the Day-Warheit
appeared for the first time today
1919: In
Paris, Dr. Sikolow, the head of the Zionist delegation to the Peace Conference
who summed up the aspirations of the Jews as comprising the recognition of the
historic title of the Jews people to Palestine and the right to re-establish
national home” “said today that the Supreme Council gave an attentive hearing
to the Zionist case.”
1920(9th
of Adar, 5680): Parashat Tetzaveh; Shabbat Zachor
1920: Oscar S.
Straus, the former Ambassador to Turkey said today that the people of the
United States “should demand immediate ratification of the Paris Peace Treaty”
and that “the responsibility for delaying the reconstruction of the world rests
upon the United States of America” and those who wish to make ratification the
issue in the upcoming Presidential campaign.
1921: Fire
destroys 120 homes and a large amount of shops in the Jewish quarter of
Kouskoundjouk, Constantinople. Most of these belonged to poor Jews.
1921:
Conference of rabbis in Jerusalem elects a court of Justice and chooses four
Ashkenazi and four Sephardi rabbis with Rabbi Kook (Ashkenazi)
& Jacob Meir (Sephardic).
1921: In
Passaic, NJ, “Morris and Goldie Zaentz, Jewish refugees from a shtetl in
eastern Poland” gave birth to Oscar award winning movie producer Saul Zaentz
whose work included “One Flew Over the Cukoo’s Next” and “Amadeus” (As reported
by Robert McFadden)
1922: David A.
Brown, director of the Jewish war relief campaign today told the volunteer
workers at meeting “that one million dollars had been subscribed since last Thursday
and that the lists carried the names of a about ten thousand person who had not
contributed to previous Jewish funds.”
1922: It was
announced today that “the portrait painter Seymour S. Stone had informed the committee
that he would paint the portrait of any person who would pay ten thousand dollars”
to the Jewish war relief campaign.
1923: “Campus
discussion of the senior council's reported informal recommendation that steps
be taken to limit admission of Jewish students to Syracuse University had
practically subsided tonight after Chancellor Charles Wesley Flint had
reiterated that no discrimination had been tolerated at the university and that
none would be.”
1924: At the
Hotel Almanac, Rabbi Gabriel Schulman officiated today at the wedding of Helen Kaffeman
and Alan S. Cohen, the son of New York residents Mr. and Mrs. Isaac Cohen.
1924: “The
Chief Rabbi of Palestine, Abraham Isaac Kook” left Jerusalem for an official
visit to America.
1924: Tonight,
at the St. Regis Hotel, Judge Joseph M. Proskauer officiated at the wedding of Florence
A. Harris whose matron of honor was Mrs. Louis Bloom and Louis N Messing, the nephew
of Aaron Naumburg.
1925: In
Hamilton, Ontario, an immigrant Hebrew teacher from the Ukraine and his wife
gave to McGill University graduate and NYU Ph.D. Louis Nirenberg, “a
mathematician who explored the complexities of equations commonly used by
physicists and engineers, and who shared the 2015 Abel Prize, a top math award
modeled after the Nobles.” (As reported by Kenneth Chang)
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/01/31/science/louis-nirenberg-dead.html
https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-020-00449-y
1926(14th
of Adar, 5686): Purim
1926 Programs
celebrating Purim are scheduled to take place at all of the 91 institutions
affiliated with the Federation for the Support of Jewish Philanthropic
Societies.
1926: “Young
Judaea Clubs throughout” the United States presented plays as part of their
Purim celebrations.
1926: In New
York, the Home for Aged and Infirm Hebrews held an open house on Purim.
1927: “An
exclusively Jewish program was offered this evening from the pulpit of the Park
Avenue Baptist Church, Park Avenue and Sixty-fourth Street” which included the
singing of three Hebrew melodies that preceded the introduction of the speaker,
James Waterman Wise, son of Rabbi Stephen S. Wise, who spoke on the Jews'
contribution to Western civilization.
1928:
The Soviets decided to set up a Jewish district in Biro-bijanin Eastern
Siberia. Most of its 14,200 square miles were uninhabitable due to floods. It
was to be used as a buffer zone against China.
1928: In
Malden, Massachusetts, “Katherine (Hellerman) Greenfield” and Nathan
Greenfield, who “was in the wool and waste business” gave birth to Joshua
Joseph Greenfield “the Oscar nominated screenwriter” who chronicled the life of
his autistic son. (As reported by Neil Genzlinger)
1929: “The
Jewish Immigrant Aid Society of Canada issued an official statement to the
Jewish Telegraphic Agency correspondent” in Montreal “denying the previous
report that the Society had received 2,500 permits for the admission of Jewish
immigrants to Canada and that there is a 5,000 quota for Jewish immigrants
under present regulations.
1929: Rabbi
Stephen S. Wise is scheduled to officiate at the wedding today at the Savoy
Plaza of Luara Plaut, the daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Herman Plaut and Leonard
Celler Herzig
1929: In
Toronto, Thelma (née Kaplanski/Caplan) and Irving Goldberg gave birth to architect
Frank Gehry.
1930:
Birthdate of Bronx native and Columbia trained Nobel Prize laureate Leon N.
Cooper, the husband of Kay Allard.
https://web.archive.org/web/20060316094457/http://physics.nobel.brainparad.com/leon_neil_cooper.html
https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/biology-physics-cooper-westinghouse/
1931(11th
of Adar, 5691): Parashat Tetzaveh; Shabbat Zachor
1931: “A
letter from Professor Albert Einstein commending the work of American Jewry in
its efforts to rehabilitate the Jews of Eastern and Central Europe was made
public” today “by Rabbi Jonah B. Wise, chairman of the 1931 fund of the
American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee which is seeking $2,500,000 to
continue reconstruction work among destitute European Jews.”
1932: It was
reported today that Eugene Meyer, Jr., chairman of the Reconstruction Finance
Corporation would be one of the witnesses to be called by the Senate Banking
and Currency Committee which is holding hearings on the behavior the stock
markets flowing the passage of “the Glass-Steagall credit stimulus.”
1933(2nd
of Adar, 5693): Eighty-four-year-old Lautenburg, Germany native David Davidson,
the Breslau educated Rabbi who came to the United States in 1880 where he
served on the “faculty of Hebrew Union College” and led several congregations
including Temple B’nai Jeshurun in Des Moines from 1881 to 1885 passed away
today.
1933: In
Germany promulgation of the Reichstag Fire Decree, legislation that suspends
civil liberties, enabling "the cabinet to take any necessary measures to
protect public safety"
1934(13th
of Adar, 5694): Ta’anit Esther; Erev Purim
1934(13th
of Adar, 5694): In the depths of the Great Depression, for some Jews, the fast
of Esther was just one more day without food.
1935(25th of
Adar I, 5695): Jeannette Miriam Goldberg, who organized Texas chapters of the
National Council of Jewish Women and the Jewish Chautauqua Society, passed
away.
1936: The
celebration of the 25th anniversary of the founding the Young Men’s
Hebrew Association took place today in Atlantic City, NJ.
1936: Otto David Tolischus,
the Prussian born Pulitzer Prize winning correspondent today wrote a
description of the Nazi regime that began with the withering words: “Like every
successful revolution that wants to be more than successful in ousting the ins
by the outs the National Socialist revolution is eagerly seeking to creates its
own style of living which shall visibly demonstrate its totalitarian character
and wean the populace from any longing to return to ‘the good old day,’ thereby
helping to assure the permanence of the new regime.
1937: It was
reported today that Rabbi Sidney E. Goldstein of the Free Synagogue will chair
“a community program on ‘Marriage and the Home’”
1937: “More
than 100 Jews of German origin attended a service held in memory of the Jews
who have died as a result of Nazi persecution sponsored by the German Jewish
Congregation and led by Rabbi Max Malina.
1937: In
“Jewish Literature” published today John Cournos provided a review of Volume
III of A History of Jewish Literature from the Close of the Bible to Our Own
Days by Meyer Waxman.
https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1937/02/28/118958393.pdf
1938: During
the Arab revolt, “an armed Arab mob” attacked Tirat Tzvi, “a kibbutz in the
Beit She’an Valley.
1938: As the
latest wave of Arab violence continued, The Palestine Post reported that
the "representatives" of armed bands were regularly visiting Arab
towns and villages, demanding money for their "activities" and
issuing "receipts." A bridge on the Jenin-Afula road was damaged by
an explosion and there were numerous shooting incidents throughout the country.
A curfew was imposed on a number of villages after armed Arab terrorists
stormed isolated police posts and stole arms and ammunition, intimidating the
local Arab constables.
1938: The
Palestine Post reported that The Union of Romanian Journalists expelled all
Jews who became members after December 1919.
1939: The
curfew that had been imposed on all of the Arab quarters starting on February
26 following the murder of 3 Jews by Arabs was scheduled to come to an end
today at 6 A.M.
1940: The
British adopted the MacDonald White Paper that included restriction of sale of
Arab land to Jews in Eretz Yisrael. This document nearly voided the Balfour
Declaration
1940: Ben
“Auberbach and his NYU squad played against in Georgetown University in a
doubleheader at Madison Square Garden in one of the first two college
basketball games to ever appear on television.”
1941(1st
of Adar, 5701): Rosh Chodesh Adar
1941: “A gold
medal for the most creative idea submitted in a poster contest for Brotherhood
Weed, conducted by the National Conference of Christians and Jew was presented”
today “to Joseph Hess, a senior in the School of Industrial Art.”
1941: It was
reported today that ‘the immigration quotas of the United States” and other
countries “remain unfilled because Jews” in Vienna who are in a position to
meet immigration requirements have not the money to pay for transportation
which means they will be “transferred” Poland.
1942: In Tel
Aviv, Aharon Werba, a civil servant who made Aliyah in 1933 and his wife Chava
gave birth to Dorit Werba who as Dorit Beinish was the first woman to serve as
president of the Supreme Court of Israel.
http://www.jpost.com/Magazine/Features/Madam-Chief-Justice
1943: George
Gershwin's "Porgy and Bess" opened on Broadway with Anne Brown and
Todd Duncan. The musical originally premiered in 1935 and survived for a
mere 124 performances. The musical was revised after Gershwin's death and
slowly gained popular and critical acclaim.
1943:
Brotherhood Week came to an end today.
1943: In
Kovono Ghetto, thousands of Jews attend the funeral of Rabbi Avraham Duber
Shapiro, Chief Rabbi of Kovno despite an order from the Nazis forbidding them
to do so.
1944(4th
of Adar, 5704): Sixty-three-year-old Kishinev native Semion Portugeiz who camed
to the United States in 1941 after the Nazis conquered France and “who for many
years wrote in the Jewish Daily Forward under the name of S. Ivanovitch” passed
away today, (JTA)
1945(15th
of Adar, 5705): Shushan Purim
1945(15th
of Adar, 5705): Siegried Adler, one of the last Jews surviving in Berlin, died
today.
1945: Author
Heinrich Eduard Jacob “gained American citizenship” today.
1945(15th
of Adar, 5705): Walter Süskind, the German born Dutch Jew who saved over six
hundred Jewish children died either at Auschwitz or one of the death marches
inflicted on Jews by their Nazi captors as the war came to a close.
http://www.holocaustresearchproject.org/survivor/suskind.html
http://www.morsephotography.com/suskindfilm/home_welcome.htm
http://www.castelfilm.ro/node/202
1946:
Fifty-four year old “Bela Imredy, the father of the anti-Jewish bill intended
to exclude Jews and those Christians with Jewish parentage from the Hungarian
civil service and liberal professional while radically curtailing their
position in trade and industry who resigned as Premier in 1939 because “he was
compelled to admit…that he was of Jewish descent” since “his mother’s
grandfather was born a Jew” passed away today.
1947: The
group of 600 Jewish passengers who were going to sail on the Abril, a ship
intending to run the British Blockade arrived at Port de Bouc from Grenoble.
1947: Jacob
and Niza Gabbai, a husband and wife couple who have just arrived in New York
City from Palestine, enrolled at Fordham University. The Gabbais are part
of the Young Palestinian League which is working to develop a new cultural
environment in their homeland. They chose Fordham “because it is a
complete university and not just a drama or radio school, and also because it
located in the world capital of the theatre.”
1948: The
famed Golani Brigade was formed today during the Israeli War for Independence
when the Levanoni Brigade in the Galilee split into the 1st Golani Brigade and
the 2nd Carmeli Brigade
1949: “Problems
of racial and religious discrimination cannot be solved by statutes or speeches
but require a militant personal living of brotherhood, former Governor Herbert
H. Lehman said today at the eighth annual luncheon of the rayon division of the
National Conference of Christians and Jews at the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel.”
1949: A
delegation from Trans-Jordan which is scheduled to negotiate an armistice with
Israel was greeted by Dr. Ralph S. Bunche today at Rodes.
1949:
Following evacuation by an Egyptian brigade, today Israel too control “of the
Faluja pocket.”
1949: “1950:
Foreign Minister Moshe Sharett presented the cabinet with the draft of five-year
non-aggression pact between Israel and Jordan. The pact is the product of
several months of secret negotiations. It includes most of the terms of
the armistice agreement without setting final boundaries. Some additional
points include the opening of the Israeli held road to Bethlehem to Arab
traffic, the opening of the road to Mt. Scopus to Israelis and an Israeli
promise to supply electricity to the Arab held sections of Jerusalem.
Israeli opposition to the agreement will be limited to a handful of leftists
who oppose King Abdullah because they think he is a puppet of the British
imperialists and the rightwing nationalists who believe that all of the land
west of the Jordan should be part of a Jewish state. Jordanian approval
is much more problematic since it will face serious opposition from numerous
sources including those who want a second war with the Jews so that they can
destroy the Zionist entity. [Abdullah would be assassinated in the following
year for conducting these negotiations and it would take another four decades
before Israel and Jordan finally concluded a peace agreement.]
1952: Birthdate of William Alan Finn the Boston
born musician whose “musical Falsettos received the 1992 Tony Awards for Best
Music and Lyrics and for Best Book.”
1953(13th
of Adar, 5713): Parashat Tetzaveh; Shabbat Zachor; Erev Purim
1953:
Birthdate of Paul Krugman, leading U.S. economist, New York Times
columnist and Nobel Prize Winner.
1953(13th of
Adar, 5713): Israeli archeologist and Hebrew University professor, Eleazar
Lipa Sukenik passed away. His life reads like an early history of the Zionist
movement. Born in Bialystok in 1889, Sukenik made Aliyah in 1911. He served in
the British army in World War I in the 40th Battalion of the Royal Fusiliers
which became known as the Jewish Legion. He played a central role in the
establishment of the Department of Archaeology of the Hebrew University. He
recognized the importance of the Dead Sea Scrolls to Israel and worked for the
Israeli state to buy them. In 1948, he published an article tentatively linking
the scrolls and their content to a community of Essenes, which became the
standard interpretation of the origin of the scrolls, a theory that is still
probably the consensus among scholars, but has also been widely questioned. He
was the father of soldier, politician and archeologist Yigael Yadin, the actor
Yossi Yadin, and Mati Yadin, who was killed in action during the 1948
Arab-Israeli War.
1954: “Riot in
Cell Block 11,” a crime film directed by Don Siegel was released today in the
United States.
1954:
Birthdate of Tulane graduate and Renaissance man Alan Smason whose interests
have led to serve as everything from a theatre reviewer to the founder of the
Crescent City Jewish News, the source for everything Jewish along the bayou.
http://www.crescentcityjewishnews.com
http://koshercomputing.blogspot.com/
1955: Three
days after Arab terrorists had murdered an Israeli civilian at Rehovot,
paratroopers from a brigade under the command of Ariel Sharon implemented
Operation Black Arrow that included an attack on an Egyptian base in Gaza and
the ambushing of the relief column – an action in which the Israelis lost eight
men while he enemy lost 37 men with “many more wounded.”
1955(6th
of Adar, 5715): On his 81st birthday Brooklyn native Benjamin Britton
Gottsberger, an engineer and Yale faculty member who was the husband of Helen Majorie
Beadle Gottsberger whom he married in 1898 passed away today in New Haven, CT
after which he was buried at the Rock Creek Cemetery in Washington, DC.
1959: In
Atlantic City, NJ, “Jane (née Divac) and Franklin Abramoff, who was president
of the Franchises unit of Diners Club Credit Card Company” gave birth to
crooked lobbyist Jack Allan Ambramoff.
1960: The
Second Annual Concert of Jewish Music was held this evening at Congregation
Beth-El in Camden, NJ, for the benefit of the Cantors Institute of the Jewish
Theological Seminary.
1961: Recently
elected President Kennedy named Henry Kissinger as special advisor.
Before being the first Jew to be named Secretary of State, Kissinger followed a
path that took him from Kennedy, to Rockefeller, to Nixon.
1961: Twelve
days after premiering in London, “Jungle Fighters” produced by Michael Balcon,
with a screenplay by Wolf Mankowitz, music by Stanley Black and starring
Laurence Harvey was released today in the UK.
1962: “A trial
of former SS leader Felix Landau on charge of ordering the shooting of twenty
Jews in Nazi-occupied Poland in July of 1941” which opened yesterday in
Stuttgart is scheduled to continue today.
1963: “Hot
Spot,” a musical with “lyrics by Martin Charnin, music by Mary Rodgers, and
additional lyrics and music by Stephen Sondheim” opened at the Shubert Theatre
in Philadelphia, PA.
1964(15th
of Adar, 5724): Shushan Purim
1964(15th
of Adar, 5724): Sixty-two year old mining engineer Samuel Grossman Laskey, the
Denver, CO, born son of Ida Grossman Lasky and Juda Eisen Lasky who graduated
from the Colorado School of Mines and earned an MS from Yale while marrying
Leon Lasky in 1927 and the former Melba Beale in 1944 passed away today in
Luxembourg after which he was buried at Home of Peace Cemetery and Emanu-El
Mausoleum in Colma, California.
1966: The New
York City debut of The Guarneri Quartet whose members included 1st
Violinist Arnold Steinhardt, Violist Michael Tree and Violoncellist David Soyer
took place today at the New School for Social Research.
1967(18th
of Adar I, 5727): Ninety-year-old Eleanor Kuh, the daughter of Samuel and
Rosalie Peck, the wife of Millar F. Kuh and “mother of Howard Michael Kuh”
passed away today.
1968(29th
of Shevat, 5728): Sixty-seven-year-old Philadelphia born University of Virginia
graduate and Harvard Medical School trained surgeon whose big claim to famed
was that he was the second husband of actress Claudette Colbert whom he married
in 1935 in a union that lasted until he passed away today.
1969: “The
State’s Chief Watchdog” published today provided a detailed profile of Vilna
native and Harvard trained attorney Goodman Alexander Sarachan, the acting
chairman of the State Investigation Commission.
1970: “Georgy”
“a musical with a book by Tom Mankiewicz, lyrics by Carole Bayer” closed today
at the Winter Garden Theatre.
1971: ITV broadcast
the first episode of “Doctor
at Large” a British television comedy which included an early performance by
Dame Maureen Lippman, the Hull born daughter of Maurice Julius Lipman, a tailor
and Zelma Pearlman.
1972(13th of
Adar, 5732): Fast of Esther
1972: “Israeli
forces withdrew today from southern Lebanon after a four-day reprisal operation
against Palestinian commandos based there, an Israeli Army spokesman reported.”
1974: Nigel
Lawson began serving as a Member of Parliament for Blaby
1974: The
United States and Egypt renew diplomatic relations. This was one of the steps
from the Yom Kippur War to the Camp David Peace Accords.
1974: Greville
Ewan Janner began serving as an MP for Leicester on the same day he completed
his services MP for Leicester North West.
1976(27th
of Adar I, 5736): Parashat Vayakhel; Shabbat Shekalim
1977: The
family and friends of Joseph M. Hyman, the producer and co-producer with the
late Bernard Hart of nearly a score of Broadway plays who passed away last week
are scheduled to gather this morning at Frank E. Campbell’s in Manhattan.
1978: The
Jerusalem Post reported that the majority of the plenum of the 29th Zionist
Congress, held in Jerusalem, approved a resolution calling for a Jewish
education program in the Diaspora, based on the principle of equality for all
trends in Judaism, and specifically including the Conservative and Reform
movements.
1978: The
Jerusalem Post reported that the Liberal Faction of the Likud in the
Knesset described the recent action taken by Agriculture Minister Ariel Sharon
in the settlement of the Yamit (Rafiah) area as injurious to the national
interest, "idiotic" and "crazy."
1978: David
Mamet’s “The Water Engine” “transferred to the Plymouth Theatre on Broadway as
a double-bill with a short Mamet play entitled Mr. Happiness, and ran for 24
performances”
1979: Six
people were injured in a terrorist bombing in Jerusalem.
1981(24th
of Adar I, 5741): Parashat, Vayakhel
1981(24th
of Adar I, 5741): Fifty-nine-year-old New York native and CCNY and Columbia
educated geneticist Dr. Arnold Warren Ravin, the WW II veteran and Director of Morris
Fishbein Center for the Study of History of Science and Medicine passed away
today.
http://photoarchive.lib.uchicago.edu/db.xqy?one=apf7-00511.xml
1983(15th of
Adar, 5743): Shushan Purim
1983:
Ninety-year old Dutch born, Englisn“writer and translator” Joseph Leftwich one
of “The Whitechapel Boys” whose career included stints with the Jewish
Telegraphic Agency and the Palestine Post, passed away today.
https://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/leftwich-joseph
http://www.jta.org/1983/03/07/archive/joseph-leftwich-dead-at-90
1986: John
Demjanjuk was deported to Israel today
1986: The
first issue of The Jewish Journal of Greater Los Angeles “appeared today.”
1986: Laura Z.
Hobson who wrote Gentlemen’s Agreement, the novel about anti-Semitism
that was turned into a 1947 film classic starring Gregory Peck, passed away.
1987(29th
of Shevat, 5747): Sixty-seven-year ballerina Nora Kay, born Nora Koreff, passed
away. (As reported by Jennifer Dunning)
http://www.nytimes.com/1987/03/01/obituaries/nora-kay-is-dead-leading-ballerina.html
1991(14th
of Adar, 5751): Purim
1991: A
twenty-five-year-old Jewish religious student, Elhanan Atali, was found in an abandoned
storeroom in the Muslim Quarter of the Old City of Jerusalem. His throat
had been slit and he had been stabbed in the back.
1993: At the
Mitzi Newhouse Theatre, “The Sisters Rosensweig…a play by Wendy Wasserstein”
that “focuses on the lives of three Jewish-American sisters” closes after 149
performances.
1993: Actor
Tony Curtis, born Bernard Schwartz, wed Lisa Deutsch.
1994: Jeffrey
Dinowitz began serving as a member of the New York State Assembly from the 81st
District.
1994(17th
of Adar, 5754): Seventy-eight-year-old geographer Jean Gottman passed away
today. (As reported by Richard D. Lyons)
1997: “The Portrait of a
Lady,” the cinematic version of the novel of the same name starring Nicole
Kidman, Barbara Hershey and Shelley Winters which had premiered at the Venice
Film Festival was released in the United Kingdom today.
1999(12th
of Adar, 5759): Eighty-four-year-old “millionaire British industrialist” Sir
Emmanuel Kaye, Russian born son of wheat merchant Zelman Kagarlisky and
botanist Chassia Annie and
“philanthropist known for founding Lansing Bagnall” and the husband of
Elizabeth Kaye, the daughter of Mark Cutler passed away today.
1999: The
New York Times featured reviews of books by Jewish authors and/or of
special interest to Jewish readers including The Amateur: An Independent
Life of Letters by Wendy Lesser and Turbo-Capitalism: Winners and Losers
in the Global Economy by Edward Luttwak
2000(22nd of
Adar I, 5760): Kariel Gardosh, the prominent Israeli political cartoonist known
by the pen-name "Dosh," died in his home in Tel Aviv from a cardiac
arrest. He was 79 years old. “Gardosh was best known for cartoons featuring his
character Srulik. Srulik was a small boy in short, sandals and a traditional
Tembel hat. Gardosh's character, always intended by the caricaturist to act a
symbol for Israel, was a blank slate upon which to reflect the changing
national mood and a perfect emblem for the emerging nation's view of itself in
the 1960s and 1970s as a small nation surrounded by hostile aggressors. The
small boy facing down representative from a hostile Arab world left an
indelible impression upon several generations of Israelis allowing the character
to remain popular through several changes in the political climate. The
character is still a presence in various licensed formats such as posters and
stickers.”
2001: “Bolstered
by the Labor Party's agreement to join him in a unity government, Prime
Minister-elect Ariel Sharon shifted his attention today to satisfying the
demands of potential partners from religious and right-wing political factions.”
2002:
Hungarian premiere of “An American Rhapsody” starring Brandeis graduate Tony
Goldwyn, the grandson of Samuel Goldwyn and featuring Emmy Rossum as “Eva.”
2003(26th of
Adar I, 5763): “Alfred Bernstein, a New Deal lawyer who led the movement to
unionize government workers and later helped desegregate the lunch counters,
restaurants, public swimming pools and playgrounds of Jim Crow-era Washington,
died today at his home in Washington. He was 92.Mr. Bernstein attended public
schools in Manhattan and graduated from Columbia College and Columbia Law
School. Inspired by the social ferment of the New Deal, he moved to the capital
in 1937 to work as an investigator for the Senate Commerce Committee's inquiry
into the monopolistic railroad industry. ''What all of us were interested in
was the transformation of the political process -- drafting regulations,
establishing Social Security, making regulatory agencies work,'' he once told
an interviewer. ''There was a lot of idealism at the time.'' After serving in
the Army Air Transport Command in the South Pacific in World War II, Mr.
Bernstein returned to Washington where he helped lead the successful effort
against Jim Crow laws in the capital.”
2003: Ariel
Sharon begins serving as Communications Minister.
2003: Eliezer
Sandberg began serving as Science and Technology Minister
2003. Reuven
Rivlin completed serving as Communications Minister.
2003: Benjamin
Netanyahu completed his service as Minister of Foreign Affairs.
2003: Silvan
Shalom begins serving as Minister of Foreign Affairs.
2003: Natan
Sharansky completed his service as Minister of Housing and Construction.
2003: Eli
Suissa completed his service Jerusalem Affairs Minister
2003: Tzachi
Hanegbi succeeded Uzi Landau as Minister of Public Safety.
2003: Yosef
Paritzky replaced Effi Eitam as National Infrastructure Minister
2003: Avraham
Poraz replaced Eli Yishai as Minister of Internal Affairs.
2003: David
Azulai competed his service as Deputy Minister of Internal Affairs.
2004(6th of
Adar, 5764): Daniel Boorstin passed away at the age of 89. He was one of
America's most renowned historians and, between 1975 and 1987, the Librarian of
Congress in the world's largest library in Washington. The son of
Russian-Jewish immigrants, Daniel Joseph Boorstin was born on October 1, 1914,
in Atlanta. He was educated at Tulsa Central High School and Harvard, from
where he graduated with honors in Law. Boorstin wrote more than 20 books,
including a trilogy on the American experience and one on world intellectual
history. The Americans: The Democratic Experience, the final book
in the first trilogy, received the 1973 Pulitzer Prize in history.
https://www.theguardian.com/news/2004/mar/01/guardianobituaries.obituaries
2004(6th
of Adar, 5763): Forty-seven-year-old “poet and published of avant-garde
magazines” Elzabeth Perl Nasaw, he sister of historian and author David Nasaw
passed away today
2005: In
Hackensack, NJ, funeral services were held for Ella Nagle, the widow of Isidore
Nagle and mother of “Harvey Nagler and Claire Harmon.”
2006(30th
of Elul, 5766): Rosh Chodesh Adar (first of a two day Rosh Chodesh).
2006: Johanna
van Schagen, a woman who helped Jews escape from the Nazis during the Holocaust
and later was honored by Israel died at the age of 91. Johanna van Schagen, who
had suffered a series of strokes, died at Friendship Village in nearby
Trotwood, where she lived. Van Schagen and her husband, Cornelius, moved to the
United States from the Netherlands in 1956. She told the Dayton Daily News
in 1994 that she and her husband sheltered Jews out of anger toward Germans who
were taking over their native Netherlands. "We were afraid many times ...
there were lots of raids and if they had found them in your home, you would be
taken to concentration camps, too," she said. Israel honored the couple in
1987 and a tree along the Avenue of the Righteous in Jerusalem is named for
Johanna van Schagen, the newspaper said. Her funeral was scheduled for Friday
at Polk Grove United Church of Christ in Dayton, which sponsored the van
Schagens when they moved to the United States, said Jacob van Schagen, a son.
She is survived by four sons and a daughter.
2007: The
second International Eilat Chamber Music Festival opens.
2007: One day
after the anniversary of the birth of his father and historian Arthur
Schlesinger, Sr. the son of Prussian Jew, 89-year-old historian Arthur M.
Schlesinger, Jr. whose Unitarianism is an oft told tale of the assimilation of
American Jewry passed away today.
https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1954/04/16/83750756.pdf
https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1965/10/31/98543706.pdf
2008:
In Cedar Rapids, Iowa, Rabbi Lane Steinger, Regional Director of the Union for
Reform Judaism,
teaches an adult education class at Temple Judah on
the Reform Movement's New Prayer book, Mishkan Tifillah.
2008:
In New York City, the 92nd Street Y presents “Witness to Nuremberg”
featuring Richard W. Sonnenfeldt the chief interpreter for the American
prosecution at the Nuremberg trials who discusses startling new information
about the Nazi war criminals and the origins and development of the Holocaust.
2008: “The Diary of Anne Frank: A Song To Life” a musical
that tells the story of Anne Frank's life in German-occupied Holland and her
death in a concentration camp, using songs that sound like a combination of
Fiddler On the Roof and Spanish tunes (complete with flamenco guitar) opens in
Spain.
2008(22
Adar 1, 5768): Israel Prize-winning author and translator Aharon Amir passed
away at age 85. Amir, who was born in Lithuania, grew up in Tel Aviv and was a
member of both the Irgun and the Lehi. He was one of the founders of the
Canaanite movement, which saw geographical location rather than religious
affiliation as the defining element of Hebrew or Israeli culture. He studied
Arabic language and literature at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem but
translated works of literature mainly from English and French. Authors whose
work he rendered into Hebrew include Ernest Hemingway, Mark Twain, Herman
Melville, Lewis Carroll, Albert Camus, and Charles de Gaulle. Amir won the
Tchernichovsky Prize for translation in 1951 and the Israel Prize for
translation in 2003.
2008: ‘Eyes Wide Open,” a documentary film that chronicles the
preconceptions and revelations of American Jews as they visit Israel, is held
at the Jerusalem Cinematheque. The film was
directed by veteran filmmaker Paula Weiman-Kelman and written by award-winning
journalist Stuart Schoffman
2008(22
Adar 1, 5768):
Esra Shereshevsky, 92, noted Hebrew-language scholar
and educator, died in Jerusalem. As founder and former chairman of the
Department of Hebrew and Near Eastern Languages and Literature at Temple
University, Shereshevsky was one of the first professors to establish Hebrew as
a full course of study at an American university. His classes were exciting
events. Whether discussing Bible, medieval manuscripts or 20th-century poets,
his teaching was seasoned by his love of the Hebrew language.
2009: According to Reform Judaism magazine, Brandeis
University, Harvard University and RadcliffeCollege, Tufts University, Boston
University, and Northeastern University are among the "Top 60 Schools Jews Choose."
2009:
In Barbados, Terry Schwarzfeld, who had just started her term as president of
Canadian Hadassah WIZO and was executive director of Ottawa's largest
synagogue, Agudath Israel, was mortally by an ex-con when he tried to rob her
and her daughter-in-law, Lauana Cotsman.
2009:
In Chicago, the Harris Theatre presents “Pinchas Zukerman in Recital” along
“with his long time collaborator, pianist Mark Neikruug.”
2009: Rabbi
Ellen Weomberg Dreyfus is installed in Jerusalem during the CCAR's 120th Annual
Convention. She is the second female Rabbi to be elected to this position and
the first female leader of a major rabbinic organization to begin her tenure in
Israel. She succeeds Rabbi Peter S. Knobel, 66, Rabbi of Beth Emet in Evanston,
IL, who will complete his two-year term as CCAR President.
2009: From January 1 through today, there were 64 terrorist
attacks that took place in the West Bank or were carried out by terrorists from
the West Bank
2009:
In “His Story Told, Koch Makes His Peace and Dares to Look Ahead,” published
today former New York May Ed Koch ruminates on his concerns as he reaches the
twilight years and describes his plans for a funeral that will leave no
question as to his profound attachment to his Jewish faith
2010(14th
of Adar, 5770): Purim
2010(14th
of Adar, 5770): Ninety-five-year-old Chicago born child-welfare advocate
Natalie Goldstein Heineman passed away today.
http://www.examiner.com/article/natalie-goldstein-heineman-died-just-18-days-after-her-96th-birthday
http://jwa.org/weremember/heineman-natalie
2010:
An exhibition at the Center for Jewish History in New York entitled “In the
Beginning: Artists Respond to Genesis” is scheduled to come to a close.
2010:
Final performance of Rinne Groff’s “Compulsion” is scheduled to take place at
the Yale Repertory Theatre.
2010:
The Los Angeles Times features reviews of books by Jewish authors and/or
of special interest to Jewish readers including The Ask, a novel by Sam
Lipsyte
2010:
The New York Times features reviews of books by Jewish authors and/or of
special interest to Jewish readers including Devotion: A Memoir by Dani
Shapir.
2010(14th
of Adar, 5710): Jose Mindlin, a Jewish bibliophile who owned the largest
private library in Latin America has died today in Brazil. He was 95. Born to
Ukrainian parents, Jose Mindlin owned over 38,000 books and was a member of the
prestigious Brazilian Academy of Letters. In 2006, he donated about half of his
collection to the University of Sao Paulo, mostly on topics related to
Brazilian studies. A building will be built in the university's campus
specifically to maintain this massive library and will be named after the Guita
and Jose Mindlin Foundation. After retiring from the business world, Mindlin
was able to dedicate his time to a passion he had since he was 13 years old:
collecting and preserving rare books. The first rare edition in his collection
was "Discours sur l'Histoire Universelle," by Jacques-Benigne
Bossuet, published in 1740. Mindlin had occupied several public positions in
the cultural field in Sao Paulo, including that of secretary of culture.
"He
was a giant of the Brazilian culture. His legacy is the library he left; the
result of a life dedicated to the books. Today it's an asset of all
Brazilians," said Sao Paulo Mayor Gilbero Kassab. Henry Sobel, emeritus
rabbi of Latin America's largest Jewish congregation, the 2,000-family
Congregacao Israelita Paulista, declared that Mindlin's life was book itself.
"He was a righteous man who could see ethics in politics and culture. I
felt so little when I was in his library. His greatest book was called Jose
Mindlin," Sobel said.
2010: Israeli police entered the Temple Mount compound today
after Palestinians began throwing stones during rioting in Jerusalem's Old City
2010:
Two Jewish athletes took home medals at the 2010 Winter Olympic Games in
Vancouver which ended today. Steve Meisler won a gold medal for the United
States in the four-man bobsled, pushing his team to a combined time of 3:24:46
in the four-heat race. Jewish ice dancer Charlie White claimed a silver
medal in ice dancing along with partner Meryl Davis. White's victory
edged a fellow ice dancer and American Jew, Ben Agosto, off the medal podium.
Agosto and his partner, Tanith Belbin, finished fourth. The pair won a silver
medal at the 2006 games. Other Jewish competitors in ice dancing, the Israeli
brother-sister duo Roman and Alexandra Zaretsky, finished 10th. Their routines
included music from "Schindler's List" and "Hava Nagila,"
and in one performance, Roman wore a yarmulke. Israel's third Olympic athlete,
skier Mikail Renzhin, finished 35th in the slalom and 55th in the giant slalom.
Laura Spector, a Jewish biathlete from Massachusetts, finished 65th and 77th in
the two races in which she competed.
2010: Ethan Bronner wrote
the following obituary describing the life of Holocaust scholar David Bankier. “David Bankier, who helped expand the
contours of Holocaust research by examining the participation of ordinary
Europeans in the extermination of their Jewish neighbors, died over the weekend
after a long illness, Yad Vashem, the Jerusalem Holocaust center, announced. He
was 63. Mr. Bankier, who was head of the International Institute for
Holocaust Research at Yad Vashem, focused his scholarly work on anti-Semitism,
especially its use by the Nazis to promote and sustain a broader ideology. He
was the author of “Germans and the Final Solution: Public Opinion Under Nazism”
as well as a collection of essays, “Hitler, the Holocaust and German Society:
Cooperation and Awareness.” Born in Germany just before the state of
Israel was created, Mr. Bankier grew up and was educated here, earning his
doctorate in Jewish history at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. He held a
professorship at Hebrew University and had served as a visiting professor in
Britain, the United States, South Africa and South America. He spoke excellent
English and Spanish, in addition to German and Hebrew. A rumpled, somber man
who sought to understand the most bewildering aspects of genocide — how someone
could play soccer with an acquaintance one day and assist in his murder the
next — Mr. Bankier insisted both on the uniqueness of the Nazi Holocaust of six
million Jews and on its applicability to other cases of mass murder. For
anti-Semites, ‘Jews represent mysterious, mythic and evil forces,” he said at a
recent lecture, “an omnipotence playing a sinister role in world history.’ At
another lecture he noted that for Hitler, “Nazism was a doctrine of world
salvation to redeem humanity from the Jewish-Christian-Marxist doctrine. The
acquisition and maintenance of total suppression of the German race, Hitler
believed, must be through total war of Germans against the Jews.” At the same
time, Mr. Bankier said last year in an interview with The New York Times that
the work he was overseeing at Yad Vashem on the role of bystanders and neighbors
in numerous smaller mass killings across the former Soviet Union in the early
1940s had important implications for contemporary genocide in Africa and other
places. He argued that the world was a different place as a result of what the
Nazis had done, that if genocide in far-off places shocked average people today
it was partly because of their knowledge of the details of the Holocaust. In
other words, Holocaust deniers aside, Holocaust awareness was central to
contemporary sensibility. Avner Shalev, chairman of Yad Vashem, said that with
Mr. Bankier’s death, the world had lost one of its most important scholars in
the field. He noted that Mr. Bankier, who had fought his illness over a long
period, kept a regular schedule until his last day.”
2011: “Korach: The Biblical Anarchist” is scheduled to have its
final performance tonight at the Living Theater on New York’s Lower East Side.
2011:
Theodore Bikel and Jim Brochu are scheduled to do a concert reading of The
Sunshine Boys by Neil Simon at a fundraiser for Theatre J in Washington, DC.
2011: “A host of charities and social action organizations from
across the Jewish world” are scheduled to meet at the Nalaga’at Theater in
Jaffa ttoday “to discuss the future of their field and hear from a wide range
of professionals who will guide them on improving their services
2011:
The New York Times featured a review of “Then Everything Changed:
Stunning Alternate Histories of American Politics: JFK, RFK, Carter, Ford,
Reagan” by Jewish author and political pundit Jeff Greenfield.
2011(24th
of Adar I, 5771): Eighty-two-year-old “prolific writer, editor and popular
radio broadcaster Netiva Ben Yehuda passed away in the early hours of this
morning.
2011: The prosecuting attorney in the trial of Adolf Eichmann,
retired Supreme Court justice Gabriel Bach, said today that a psychiatric
evaluation conducted on the Nazi leader following his capture in 1960 suggested
that the man responsible for the deaths of millions during the Holocaust had
ambivalent sexual tendencies. (As reported by the Jerusalem Post).
2011(24th
of Adar I, 5771): Ninety-two year old Louis Sachwald, the former resident of
Pikesville, MD who survived the Bataan Death March and 42 months as a POW
passed away today. He was a member of Baltimore’s Beth-El Congregation.
http://philippine-defenders.lib.wv.us/html/sachwald_louis_bio.html
2011(24th of
Adar I, 5771): Seventy-five-year-old Harvey Dorfman who worked with many Major
League Baseball stars and wrote books on sports psychology, including “The
Mental Game of Baseball: A Guide to Peak Performance,” passed away today. (As
reported by the Eulogizer)
2011: Actress
Natalie Portman condemned Christian Dior chief designer John Galliano for
anti-Semitic comments made at a bar in Paris, France which appeared on an
online. “I am deeply shocked and disgusted by the video of John Galliano’s
comments that surfaced today," Portman said in a statement. "In light
of this video, and as an individual who is proud to be Jewish, I will not be
associated with Mr. Galliano in any way." The Oscar winning actress is
currently under an endorsement contract with Dior for its "Dior
Cherie" fragrance.
2011: The
United States Senate confirmed the nomination of Amy Totenberg to serve as
Judge of the United States District Court for the Northern District of Georgia
2012: Ballet
de Genève's stunning artists are scheduled to perform a work by Israeli born
choreographer Emanuel Gat at the Joyce Theatre in New York City.
2012: Israeli
trained clarinetist Alexander Fiterstein is scheduled to perform at Lincoln
Center tonight. The program will include a work by American Jewish composer
Aaron Copland.
2012: Megillat
Ha-Manginot (The Scroll of Melodies) a musical celebrating Israel and its songs
is scheduled to be performed at the Jerusalem Theatre on Rechov Marcus.
2012:
Publication of “Faye Schulman – the Jewish Girl Who Fought the Nazis”
http://www.blogwrath.com/jewish-issues/faye-schulman-the-jewish-girl-who-fought-the-nazis/2585/
2012: Supreme
Court President Dorit Beinisch put down her gavel this morning, ending a
45-year legal career, and urged in her farewell remarks that it is crucial to
maintain the independence of court.
2012: The IDF
said today that soldiers patrolling the border overnight spotted a group of
people who had breached the frontier.
2013:
Jack Lew, an observant Orthodox Jew, was sworn as Secretary of the Treasury.
2013:
It was announced today that Idina Menzel would make her return to the Broadway
stage, starring as Elizabeth in the new musical “If/Then.”
2013:
Cantor Yitzchak Meir Helfgot “performed with violinist Itzhak Perlman at a
Jewish Music concert at the Barclay's Center in Brooklyn.”
2014: The
exhibition, “Passages through the Fire: Jews and the Civil War,” comes to a
close at the Jewish Museum of Maryland.
2014: In
Bethesda, MD, Congregation Adat Shalom is scheduled to start a hosting a
weekend devoted to exploring “The Enduring Legacy of Rabbi Mordecai Kaplan.”
2014: Niv
Sheinfeld and Oren Laor are scheduled to perform at Abrons Arts Center
Playhouse.
2014: In
Denver, CO, “45 Israeli and North American Jewish Artists are scheduled to show
and sell their creations: under the auspices “Jewishcolorado.”
2014: The IDF
has reportedly issued a stern warning to the Lebanese government, clarifying
that the government will be held response and be a target for response should
Hezbollah carry out its threats to attack Israel. (As reported by Ari Yashar)
2014: The
Israeli Air Force attacked an underground rocket launcher in the northern Gaza
Strip tonight in an effort to eliminate “an imminent threat” of rocket fire
towards Israel. (As reported by Yoav Zitun)
2014: The
Islamist Basij militia force in Tehran ran a special military exercise
yesterday and today preparing for an Iranian takeover of Jerusalem. (As
reported by Dalit Halevy and Tov Dvorin)
2015: In
Rockville, MD, Magen David Sephardic Congregation is scheduled to host “Bling
Bling Like A Persian King…..A 21+Purim Extravaganza.”
2015: In a bit
of homecoming, Lewis Black is scheduled to perform at the Warner Theatre in
Washington, D.C.
2015: This
evening in Iowa City, Hillel is scheduled to host its Annual Fundraising
Concert.
2015:
“Stitching History” “a remarkable exhibit about the late Hedy Strnad, a
Jewish-Czech dressmaker who with her husband, Paul, attempted to immigrate to
the United States on the eve of the Holocaust” is scheduled to come to a close
at the Jewish Museum in Milwaukee.
http://www.jta.org/2014/10/05/arts-entertainment/the-jewish-dressmaker-fdr-turned-away
2015: The
Igael Shemtov Exhibition which has been on display for the last three weeks at
Baxter St at CCNY is scheduled to come to an end
http://www.baxterst.org/exhibitions-3/igaelshemtov/
2016:
The Andalusian Orchestra is scheduled to perform with Berry Sakharov and
Raymonde Abecassis tonight at 10 p.m. at
Zappa Herzliya.
2016: “The
first major documentary about legendary director about Claude Lanzman who has
never won an Oscar entitled ‘Claude Lanzmann: Specters of the Shoah’ is among
the nominees for this year’s Academy Awards” which are scheduled to be
announced at tonight ceremony in Los Angeles.
2016: The New York Times features reviews of
books by Jewish authors and/or of special interest to Jewish readers including The
Right Wrong Man: John Demjanjuk and the Last Great Nazi War Crimes Trial by Lawrence Douglas
2016(19th
of Adar I, 5776): Ninety-three-year-old Chicago born real estate developer and
“banker to the stars” Bram Goldsmith whose philanthropies included Jewish
Federal Council of Greater Los Angeles and the National Conference of
Christians and Jews passed away today.
2017: The
Center for Jewish History is scheduled to host “No Shushing Allowed” an event
designed to introduce the general public to the institution’s librarians and
archivists in an informal atmosphere.
2017(2nd
of Adar, 5777): Ninety-two-year-old Marion Javits, the widow of Senator Jacob
K. Javits passed away today.
https://nypost.com/2017/03/01/marion-javits-found-dead-in-her-apartment/
2017: “Israel’s
state comptroller took military and political leaders to task for their failure
to prepare adequately for the threat of attack tunnels ahead of the 2014 war
with Hamas in the Gaza Strip, in a pair of long-awaited, highly critical
reports published” today. (As reported by Judah Ari Gross)
2017: The
headstone of Staff Sgt. Jack Weinger, a navigator for the 345th
Bombardment Group killed during an air raid over Japan in 1945 was replaced
today “with one bearing a Star of David” “at the National Memorial Cemetery of
the Pacific in Honolulu.” (JTA/TOI)
2017: Dr.
Robert Silber, a pillar of the Jewish community and chair of the Thaler
Holocaust Committee is scheduled to begin his career as a professor at the
University of Iowa Medical School.
2017: The
Temple Emanu-El Streicker Center is scheduled to host Rabbi Norman Cohen’s
lecture “Cain and Abel.”
2017: “Israel’s
state comptroller took military and political leaders to task for their failure
to prepare adequately for the threat of attack tunnels ahead of the 2014 war
with Hamas in the Gaza Strip, in a pair of long-awaited, highly critical
reports published” today.
2017: Today
Marc “Trestman was named the head coach of the Toronto Argonauts,”
2017: J
Street’s annual convention is scheduled to come to an end today.
2017: The Leo
Baeck Institute is scheduled to host a screening of the iconic film
“Casablanca” followed by a discussion of We’ll Always Have Casabalanca by Noah
Isenberg.
http://books.wwnorton.com/books/Well-Always-Have-Casablanca/
2018(13th of Adar, 5778): Fast of
Esther; Megillah reading in the evening;
2018: Today, “Olympic gymnast Aly Raisan” filed
papers in California Superior Court suing “the United States Olympic Committee
and U.S.A. Gymnastics…saying that they should have prevented the former team
doctor, Lawrence G. Nassar, from sexually abusing her and other athletes.
2018: Hillel of Iowa and Augdas Achim are
scheduled to join forces to observe Purim complete with Megillah reading, face
painting, hamentaschen baking and carnival games.
2018: Following a community breaking of the
fast and the reading of the Megillah, the Oxford University Jewish Society is
scheduled to host a Purim Party.
2019: The Oxford University LBBTQ Society is
scheduled to host a panel on “Gender, Diversity and Religion.”
2019: “Professor Ora Paltiel, a haematologist
and epidemiologist at Hadassah-Hebrew University, and Professor A Mark
Clarfield, a geriatrician at Ben-Gurion University,” are scheduled to speak at
UCL today in the United Kingdom.
2019(23rd of Adar I, 5779): Eighty-nine-year-old
award musician Andre Previn passed away today. (As reported by James Barron)
2019: The Town and Village Synagogue Social
Hall is scheduled to host Ken Maltz, Lauren Brody and Aaron Alexander as part
of the New York Klezmer Series.
2019: In
London, JW3 is scheduled to host the last two screenings of “On the Basis of
Sex,” a biopic about Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg.
2019: In the
Negev, the Darom Adom (Red South Festival) is scheduled to come an end.
2019: Professor
of Modern Jewish History and Holocaust Studies at Emory University, Dr. Deborah
Lipstadt is scheduled to discuss her latest book Antisemitism: Here and Now
this evening at the Streicker Center.
2019: The 24th annual East Bay
International Jewish Film Festival is schedule to open “with ‘Riphagen,’ a
drama about a Nazi collaborator” “who help the Nazis round up Jews, stealing
their treasures for himself” while destroying “Resistance groups.”
2019: Friends and family are scheduled to
celebrate a milestone-birthday for Tulane grad and CCJN published Alan Smason,
a mensch and Renaissance man
2019: After testifying publicly yesterday
before the House Oversight Committee, Michael Cohen is scheduled to testify
today in a closed session before House Permanent Select Committee on
Intelligence.
2020: Erev Shabbat, The New York Sephardic
Jewish Film Festival is scheduled to “go dark” for the evening.
2020: In Los Gatos, CA, Congregation Shir
Hadash is scheduled to host a Shabbat service followed by historian Benny
Morris lecturing on “A New Look at the 1948 Arab Israeli War”
2020: The Oxford University Jewish Society is
scheduled to host both “an orthodox minyan and a student-led egalitarian
minyan” followed by an interfaith Friday night dinner.
2020: “Friends of Bezalel are schedule to
present “Growing a Garden for an Unknown Lover by Boaz Aharonovitch” a
photo-diary “documenting a gardening project that took place in his studio.”
2020: Erev of Shabbat is especially joyful for
the friends and family of Alan Smason, the multi-talented bon vivant who
publishes the Crescent City Jewish News, as he celebrates another natal day.
2021: The Atlanta Jewish Film Festival is
scheduled to host a screening of Howie Mandel: But, Enough About Me.”
2021: Addison-Penzak JCC in Los Gatos is
scheduled to host a Purim CARnival, “a drive-in event in its parking lot.”
2021: “The Jewish Federation of Greater New
Orleans and the Birmingham Jewish Federation, in partnership with the Jewish
Agency for Israel's Partnership2Gether program” is scheduled to host Mitchell
Barak and Robert Mann “for an informative and engaging discussion on how civics
and governance structures work in Israel and in the United States - and what we
can do when those mechanisms become stuck.”
2021: As part of Jewish Book, the Jewish Book
Council is scheduled to sponsor Delphine Horvilleur, only France’s third
female rabbi, as she” discusses antisemitism and more with Philippe Sands.”
2021: In Ohio, Temple Emanu El and five other
area synagogues are schedule to sponsor “a concert by Nefesh Mountain,” this
afternoon.
2021: In New Orleans, the Jewish Community is
scheduled to host a Purim Celebration.
2021: The American Sephardi Federation is
scheduled to present “live on Zoom, “Sephardic Culinary History with Chef
Hélène Jawhara-Piñer.”
2021: In Palm Beach Gardens, FL, Temple Judea
is scheduled to host a Purim Party “for all kids 0-13.”
2021: The Jewish Community Library is scheduled
to present Historian David Nasaw talking “about the difficult times and lives
in limbo for the last 1 million Eastern Europeans in Germany after WWII,
including 250,000 Jews, stuck in displaced persons camps for three to five
years.”
2021: KlezCalifornia is scheduled to present Instructor
Bruce Bierman teaching “a class on how to inject shtick and special, old-time
styles of exaggerated acting to the characters in the Purim story.”
2021: In London, at Highgate Synagogue Rabbi
Liss is scheduled to lead a “Sunday Morning Discussion” on the topic of “Is It
Ever Ok to Lie?”
2021: Based on published reports Israel has
“posted 4,574 new virus cases with 31 deaths over the weekend.”
2021: Private graveside services are scheduled
to be held at noon today for Eishes Chayil Diane Levin, age 60, beloved
wife of Stephen Levin, happily married for 35 years; loving mother of Amy Levin
and Allison Levin (Max Affrunti); much loved sister of Sharon Finegood.
2022: The Streicker Center is scheduled
to present the first lecture on “Poland, The Holocaust and Cinema” by Dr. Eric
Goldman.
2022: The American Sephardi Federation is
scheduled to present a lecture by Dr. Sarah Benor, a Professor of Contemporary
Jewish studies at HUC on “Jewish Languages Today: Endangered, Surviving and
Thriving.”
2022: The Streicker Center is scheduled to
present the first lecture on the “Agony of the Latter Prophets” by Diane M.
Sharon.
2022: Floating Walls, curated by Aya Goshen, which presents a multidisciplinary
survey of works made by seven NY-based Israeli artists: Dana Levy, Gal Cohen,
Lee Tal, Michal Geva, Naomi Safran-Hon, Noa Charuvi, and Zac Hacmon. Image:
Michal Geva, is scheduled to have its last showing at the Laurie M. Tisch
Gallery.
2023: It was reported today that
the Israeli drama “Shtisel” is scheduled to begin streaming on Netflix for a
third season on March 24.
2023: “A Polarizing French
Philosopher Chooses War Zones Over Salons” published today provides a review “Slava
Ukraini” in which “the writer and filmmaker Bernard-Henri Lévy warns of a heavy
price if the West fails to defeat Putin in Ukraine.”
2024: The Temple Emanu-El Streicker Cultural Center
is scheduled to host the second night of a two-night virtual summit on “Anti-Semitism:
The Dangerous Reality We Must Confront.”
2024: YIVO is scheduled to present a talk by
Aleksandra Jakubczak on “East European Jewish Women in Their Quest for a Dowry
in the First Half of the Twentieth Century.”
2024: The Museum of the Southern Jewish Experience
is scheduled to host a screening of “Rosenwald,” that tells the incredible
story of how businessman and philanthropist Julius Rosenwald joined forces with
Booker T. Washington and African American communities in the segregationist Jim
Crow South to build more than 5,000 schools.
2024: As
February 28th begins in Israel, the Hamas held
hostages begin day 145 in captivity.
(Editor’s note: this situation is too fluid for this blog to cover so we
are just providing a snapshot as of the posting at midnight Israeli time.)
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